Russia and Georgia move to brink of war as fighting rages in breakaway region of Sout

[Panama]

Russia is attacking the ENTIRE country not just South Ossetia!
They have taken the port at Kodori they have overun Gori and are now attacking the capital of Tbilisi. Like I said earlier, this is going to be done and quick, BUT then what? Do you suggest we do nothing? I don't have the answer, but if there is no price to Russia for this, next stop will be Ukraine!

 

[Bigum1969]

Russia is attacking the ENTIRE country not just South Ossetia!
They have taken the port at Kodori they have overun Gori and are now attacking the capital of Tbilisi. Like I said earlier, this is going to be done and quick, BUT then what? Do you suggest we do nothing? I don't have the answer, but if there is no price to Russia for this, next stop will be Ukraine!

I believe Russia clearly sees this as an opportunity to get some land back that was lost with the breakup of the Soviet Union. But, as I've said before, who's going to stop them?

 

[flagtag]

Then why send so much against so few? If ALL of Georgia fought Russia why does Georgia have people fighting them? The Georgian goverment might be what those patriots fought against.

By the way, I don't claim to know everything. I am just someone trying to figure this whole mess out. Thanks for the conversation.

I don't think any of will ever know the whole story. One theory could be that the "sepretists" are agents of Russia (spys?) and they were sent there to cause dissent as an excuse for Russia to attack.
I don't think it's as simple as has been reported. I do know that Russia wants ALL of the land they have lost since the decline of the USSR back. Putin is not to be trusted, he's going back to his old ways.

I do hope they can solve the issue (and kick Russia out at the same time) without expanding the fighting.

 

[turnandshoot4]

It all started because Georgia went into South Ossetia with a military force. Would Russia have invaded Georgia if they didn't? I don't know that. Is Russia using this as a power grab? Yes. I still feel that the Georgian's actions were unecessary.

 

[turnandshoot4]

I do hope they can solve the issue (and kick Russia out at the same time) without expanding the fighting.

I agree. My heart goes out to the innocent people caught in the middle.

 

[flagtag]

I agree. My heart goes out to the innocent people caught in the middle.

Agreed! The innocent suffer the ego of those in power. (Or even those who are trying to take it)

 

[Cwood]

I was reading a news article that was basically saying that this was a planned attack by Russia. That they used the separatists to start causing problems knowing that the Georgian government would step in and thy to stop the violence that the separatists were doing. Once the Georgian government responded to the violence the Russians used that as their green light to invade the country.

I personally do not believe that the Russians would even be thinking of doing this if the UN would have allowed Goergia membership into the UN. Russia is trying to reclaim the land that it has lost. It also wants to control all the oil in the region. Greed and power can be a massive driving force for a country that has lost so much after the fall of the USSR.

 

[flagtag]

I was reading a news article that was basically saying that this was a planned attack by Russia. That they used the separatists to start causing problems knowing that the Georgian government would step in and thy to stop the violence that the separatists were doing. Once the Georgian government responded to the violence the Russians used that as their green light to invade the country.

I personally do not believe that the Russians would even be thinking of doing this if the UN would have allowed Goergia membership into the UN. Russia is trying to reclaim the land that it has lost. It also wants to control all the oil in the region. Greed and power can be a massive driving force for a country that has lost so much after the fall of the USSR.

Putin has been plotting the re-conquering of all of the nations that seperated from Russia for years.
I agree that Russia (Putin) is responsible. I just hope the UN does go into an emergency session to reconsider Georgia's admittance.

 

[Paul]

It all started because Georgia went into South Ossetia with a military force. Would Russia have invaded Georgia if they didn't? I don't know that. Is Russia using this as a power grab? Yes. I still feel that the Georgian's actions were unecessary.

Your missing a big point. South Ossetia is part of Georgia, NOT Russia. Georgia can move troops in as they please. The Russian "peacekeepers" were actually repairing the railroad system to help move Russian supplies. They have had this planned for a while.

 

[flagtag]

Your missing a big point. South Ossetia is part of Georgia, NOT Russia. Georgia can move troops in as they please. The Russian "peacekeepers" were actually repairing the railroad system to help move Russian supplies. They have had this planned for a while.

I agree! Putin want's the old USSR back - which includes ALL the states that left it. I also believe he wants to expand to other countries. (Just my feelings, nothing concrete) Putin is KGB and is trying to regain his power.

 

[Bigum1969]

Looks like an end may be near...

Medvedev halts Russian attacks in Georgia - Russia - MSNBC.com

 

[epsylum]

I agree! Putin want's the old USSR back - which includes ALL the states that left it. I also believe he wants to expand to other countries. (Just my feelings, nothing concrete) Putin is KGB and is trying to regain his power.

He has been quoted as saying that the fall of the Berlin Wall was "one of the saddest days in Russian history". The fall of an oppressive government is sad? Maybe to a KGB officer who was one of the political elite class. To those dancing on the wall..... HELL NO.

BTW Russia has already threatened "military actions" against us if we setup our missile defense system in the Czech Republic. They are openly threatening us. Plus their whole restarting cold war bomber flights and incursions into other country's airspace (including the UK).

Welcome to Cold War II.

 

[BloodEclipse]

BTW Russia has already threatened "military actions" against us if we setup our missile defense system in the Czech Republic. They are openly threatening us. Plus their whole restarting cold war bomber flights and incursions into other country's airspace (including the UK).

Welcome to Cold War II.

Not only that but he also said if any Nation takes action against Iran, that Russia would intervene and protect Iran.

 

[Paul]

I just heard on FoxNews that there is NOT a halt in fighting. So it is not over yet.

 

[epsylum]

Russia threatening to nuke Poland!?!? WTF? They are determined to start another world war.

Are the missle defense systems aimed at Russia? Probably, but that is what happens when you act like a jackass.

FOXNews.com - Russia: U.S. Missiles in Poland Won't Go Unpunished - International News | News of the World | Middle East News | Europe News

 

[raiven]

Russian soldiers take prisoners in Georgia port


POTI, Georgia (AP) - Russian soldiers took about 20 Georgian troops prisoner at a key Black Sea port in western Georgia on Tuesday, blindfolding them and holding them at gunpoint, and commandeered American Humvees awaiting shipment back to the United States.

The move came as a small column of Russian tanks and armored vehicles left the strategic Georgian city of Gori in the first sign of a Russian pullback of troops from Georgia after a cease-fire intended to end fighting that reignited Cold War tensions. The two countries on Tuesday also exchanged prisoners captured during their brief war.
However, Russian soldiers took Georgian servicemen prisoner in Poti—Georgia's key oil port city—and commandeered the U.S. Humvees.
Russian forces blocked access to the city's naval and commercial ports on Tuesday morning and towed the missile boat Dioskuria, one of the navy's most sophisticated vessels, out of sight of observers. A loud explosion was heard minutes later.
Several hours later, an Associated Press photographer saw Russian trucks and armored personnel carriers leaving the port with about 20 blindfolded and handcuffed men riding on them. Port spokesman Eduard Mashevoriani said the men were Georgian soldiers.
Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said officials were looking into the reported theft of the Humvees.
The deputy head of Russia's general staff, Col. Gen. Anatoly Nogovitsyn, said Russian forces plan to remain in Poti until a local administration is formed, but did not give further details. He also justified previous seizures of Georgian soldiers as necessary to crack down on soldiers who were "out of any kind of control ... acting without command."
An AP television crew has seen Russian troops in and around Poti all week, with local port officials saying the Russians had destroyed radar, boats and other Coast Guard equipment there.
Russian troops last week drove Georgian forces out of South Ossetia, where Georgia on Aug. 7 launched a heavy artillery barrage in the separatist Georgian province with close ties to Russia. Fighting also has flared in a second Russian-backed separatist region, Abkhazia.
The short war has driven tensions between Russia and the West to some of their highest levels since the breakup of the Soviet Union, but Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has icily defended Russia's actions.
"Anyone who tries anything like that will face a crushing response," he said Monday. Later Medvedev handed out military medals to Russian soldiers involved in the fighting.
The cease-fire requires both sides to return to positions held before the fighting began, but Whitman said Tuesday morning in Washington that it didn't appear Russia had made any significant withdrawal of forces.
"So far we have not seen any significant movement out of Georgia," he said.
In central Georgia on Tuesday, a small column of Russian tanks and armored vehicles left Gori, and a Russian officer said they were heading back to South Ossetia and then Russia. Col. Igor Konoshenkov, a Russian military officer at the scene, gave no timetable for when the unit would reach Russia.
At an emergency meeting in Brussels, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and her 25 NATO counterparts demanded that Russia immediately withdraw its troops from Georgia, a U.S. ally that wants to join NATO.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said that the emergency meeting of NATO foreign ministers sent a message that Russia could not draw new dividing lines in Europe.
"It is time for the Russian president to keep his word to withdraw Russian forces," Rice told a news conference.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov called a snap news conference in Moscow to respond to Tuesday's remarks by NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, who accused Russia of occupying Georgia and said "there can be no business as normal under the current circumstances."
Lavrov said Russian withdrawal depended "first of all, on the return of Georgian troops" to their permanent bases.
"This still hasn't happened. Every day several episodes still occur when our servicemen detain Georgian troops" who haven't returned to their bases as agreed, he said.
"Even so, the withdrawal has started," he said, and will finish once Russian peacekeepers are permanently set up in the security zone, "which will take three or four days."
Lavrov lashed out at the alliance, saying NATO "is trying to make a victim of the aggressor, to absolve of guilt a criminal regime, to save a collapsed regime and is taking a course to rearm the current leaders of Georgia."
France and some other allies had seemed reluctant to back a U.S. hard line against Moscow before the meeting, but Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner expressed exasperation at Russia's failure to pull back its troops in line with the peace deal brokered last week by French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
Kouchner said Sarkozy may call an emergency European Union meeting to review EU relations with Russia if the troops were not pulled back to their pre-conflict positions. Kouchner warned the EU could also withdraw its backing for Russian membership of the World Trade Organization.
"It's a possibility, among others," Kouchner said. "We don't want to use this sort of pressure, but we also don't want this document (the peace deal) to remain a dead letter."
Also Tuesday, Russia and Georgia exchanged 20 prisoners of war in an effort to reduce tensions. Two Russian military helicopters landed in the village of Igoeti, the closest that Russian forces have advanced to the Georgian capital of Tbilisi. Soldiers and men in unmarked clothing got off and two people in stretchers were taken to Georgian officials.
Georgian ambulances later brought two other people to the Russian choppers. One was on a gurney.
Georgian Security Council head Alexander Lomaia told reporters in Igoeti that 15 Georgians and five Russians were exchanged. "It went smoothly," he said. The operation also witnessed by Russian Maj. Gen. Vyacheslav Borisov, who commands troops in the area.
Lomaia said the exchange removed any pretext for Russians to keep holding positions in Igoeti, 30 miles west of Tbilisi, or anywhere else on Georgia's only significant east-west highway.
___ Associated Press writers David Nowak, Jim Heintz and Steve Gutterman in Moscow, Christopher Torchia in Igoeti, Georgia; Dmitry Lovetsky in Ruisi, Georgia; and Paul Ames in Brussels, Belgium contributed to this report.

Russian soldiers take prisoners in Georgia port

 

[flagtag]

Now, you KNOW that can't be true! The Russian government said that they were withdrawing..... Uh, huh!
Sure looks like it, doesn't it! ?

 

[Paul]

Now, you KNOW that can't be true! The Russian government said that they were withdrawing..... Uh, huh!
Sure looks like it, doesn't it! ?

It is because Putin is returning Russia to the good ole years of the USSR

 

[flagtag]

It is because Putin is returning Russia to the good ole years of the USSR

Yeah. Putin said that the fall of the wall was the saddest thing that happened to the USSR. His policies are reverting to the "good old days" with KGB type oversight. And he doesn't care what the world thinks of him or his actions.
Attacking Georgia is the start of the rebuilding. He wants to go after the others that left the USSR also.

 

[MilitaryArms]

Can you imagine what it would be like in those break away states that are now autonomous if Russia were to reclaim them by military force? The good old days would be back alright...

Anyone who fought for freedom from Russia, or supported independence would be spirited off in the night, never to be heard from again. They would crack down on the population, put up walls again... it would be the Cold War era all over.